West End
Mary Stuart, Duke of York's Theatre review - superb teamwork from Juliet Stevenson and Lia Williams in Schiller's thrillerFriday, 26 January 2018
Casting decisions do not usually make gripping theatre. But in Robert Icke’s version of Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 political thriller, newly transferred from the Almeida to the West End, settling the question of which of two actresses will play the... Read more... |
Beginning, Ambassadors Theatre review - funny and richly moving comedy about lonelinessWednesday, 24 January 2018
Awkwardness is a challenging effect in drama, and one so rewarding when it works. When the movement isn’t easy, when the dialogue doesn't flow; when, with emotional revelations broken and coming with difficulty, the pauses speak more powerfully than... Read more... |
Lady Windermere's Fan, Vaudeville Theatre review - Wilde abandonedTuesday, 23 January 2018
Imagine, if you will, discovering a ninth-rate old melodrama about upper-class nonsense, hiring a bunch of actors including a couple of starry friends big in comedy and putting it on stage. And then realising there’s a paying audience so, to make it... Read more... |
Jeremy Irons: 'I was never very beautiful' - interviewMonday, 22 January 2018
In 2016 the Bristol Old Vic turned 250. To blow out the candles, England’s oldest continually running theatre summoned home one of its most splendid alumni. Jeremy Irons – Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited, an Oscar winner as Claus von Bülow in... Read more... |
The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter Theatre review - starry cast create a stunning masterpieceFriday, 19 January 2018
Is modernism dead and buried? Anyone considering the long haul of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party from resounding flop in 1958 to West End crowd-pleasing classic today might be forgiven for wondering whether self-consciously difficult literary... Read more... |
Girl from the North Country, Noël Coward Theatre review - Bob Dylan fuels a dreamlike dramaFriday, 12 January 2018
The rolling stone is now at home in the West End, as Conor McPherson’s inimitable dramatic take on Bob Dylan transfers from the Old Vic, where it premiered last summer. Described as “a play with songs”, it’s the distinct harmony of two art forms,... Read more... |
Hamilton, Victoria Palace review - rich, radical and ridiculously excitingSaturday, 23 December 2017
“Are you aware that we’re making history?” demands Alexander Hamilton in the show that has finally made the lesser-known Founding Father an international household name. And whether its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, knew it when he wrote that line or... Read more... |
La Soirée, Aldwych Theatre review - flickers of brilliance in a patchy eveningThursday, 07 December 2017
La Soirée is on the up-and-up. Beginning life as an after-hours show at the fringes of the Fringe in 2004, it won an Olivier in 2015 and has landed its first West End residency, a two-month run at the Aldwych Theatre over Christmas. Its acts –... Read more... |
Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Apollo Theatre review - inclusive and utterly joyfulThursday, 23 November 2017
Everybody’s been talking about Everybody’s Talking About Jamie since its Sheffield Crucible debut earlier this year. It’s unusual to see a musical come steaming into the West End based on word on mouth – not star casting, or association with an... Read more... |
'This is how it happened': Tom MacRae on writing Everybody's Talking About JamieSunday, 05 November 2017
I’d always wanted to write a musical, but I didn’t start actually trying until four years ago. Now four years on, my first show, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, is about to hit the West End – that’s four years to go from no show, no idea and... Read more... |
Venus in Fur, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - pain and pleasure in a starry two-handerWednesday, 18 October 2017
A hit on Broadway, David Ives’s steamy two-hander now boasts Natalie Dormer and David Oakes, well-known for their screen work, in its West End cast, with Patrick Marber on directing duties. That plus the tabloid panting over Dormer’s skimpy S&M... Read more... |
A Woman of No Importance, Vaudeville - Eve Best is superb as a woman scornedTuesday, 17 October 2017
In a rather clever wheeze, Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe – who therefore knows a thing or two about historically accurate stagings – has established Classic Spring, a new company dedicated to celebrating work by... Read more... |
